Toward Water and Sanitation for All: Featuring Matt Damon, co-founder of Water.org

Water touches every aspect of development. It drives economic growth, supports vital ecosystems, and is fundamental to life. However, nearly 700 million people currently lack access to safe drinking water; 2.4 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation.

With the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, the global community committed to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” (SDG6) by 2030.But to meet SDG6 and other water-related SDGs, one big hurdle is the lack of sufficient sources of finance.

The World Bank is co-hosting the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) Finance Ministers’ Meeting at the 2017 IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings, the first high-level SWA meeting to be held since the launch of the SDGs. The focus of this meeting will be on how we can address the financing gap for universal access to water and sanitation, which is estimated to be $114 billion per year until 2030.

Join thought leaders on water issues including Matt Damon, co-founder of Water.org, for a conversation on how we can tap into additional sources of financing and use existing resources more effectively and efficiently, in order to meet our ambition to provide water and sanitation for all.